ABSTRACT
The myths and legends of Southern Italy set significant intellectual challenges to travellers seeking to tame those unruly cultural emanations with the logic of rationality. On the other hand, for Norman Douglas, who opted for the spiritual high ground of “wisdom” over the banalities of convention, the celebration of the disruptive otherness of Siren Land left him straddling a fault line with the appearance of supreme cultural bliss. The association of the Italian South with Africa and the Orient perhaps provided more testing territory for the ideological contours that shaped these writers’ constructions of the country. Superstitions, customs, and rituals would spring up wherever the surface of European culture might be scratched. The larger question for these visitors was whether or not the South could be seen to belong, unequivocally, to Europe.
